CHAP. Proceedings of Savoy : upon it the old motto of their city-" After darkness I hope for light"-to the simpler form, "Light after Darkness" expressive of acknowledgment for hopes fulfilled. We have now therefore brought down our account to an important epoch in the history of Geneva, and might be at liberty for a time to give our attention to other subjects. But, before we turn to any other quarter, we must first see Geneva placed in safety, as well as numbered among the reformed states. Such was by no means its present condition. The duke of Savoy, enraged at the revolution of the duke which was now completed, prohibited to his subjects all intercourse with Geneva. At the same time he encouraged as many of the inhabitants as would abandon their apostate country, to settle in his dominions. So far however from distressing the city by this means, he only relieved it of the malcontents, whose place was soon after rapidly and beneficially supplied by persons from various parts, who were happy to take up their abode in a situation where they could freely exercise their religion, and enjoy many other advantages. So far therefore this little state was strengthened rather than weakened by the measures which he adopted against it. Those, it has been remarked, who accepted the duke's invitation, and removed into his dominions, entailed bondage upon themselves and their posterity; whereas those who remained at Geneva, or Ru. v. Spon, i. 246-265. Scultetus, 193, 199-201. 330-334. The annotators on Spon say, that the abbreviated motto had been used before this time. This however does not prove that it was not now designedly and significantly adopted. migrated thither, enjoyed liberty themselves and transmitted it to their descendants. Such at least were the consequences after a short period of further struggle.1 A. D. 1535. Berne. In the mean time, it must be confessed, the extent to which the duke carried the blockade of the place, both by land and water, became to a high degree distressing and dangerous. This was for several ensuing months the subject of incessant applications to Berne, and of incessant and of negotiations between Berne and the duke, as well as of such feeble efforts to relieve themselves as the Genevese could make. The Bernese certainly shewed no forwardness to wage war upon the duke, though they were likely to be the gainers, and did ultimately prove gainers to a great extent, by that measure. On the contrary, they carried their perseverance in negotiation to the extreme of weakness, when it had become manifest that the duke merely sought to gain time till the city should fall into his hands through the pressure of want, or be reduced by the forces which he hoped to receive from his brother-in-law the emperor.2 Nay they even took upon them to dismiss, and send home again, some troops which the people of Geneva, at an expence which they could ill bear, had procured from the neighbourhood of Neuchâtel and Vallengin. At length however they were roused, when they found that the duke kept none of his promises; that the situation of their ally was becoming extremely critical; and that even Berne desome places pertaining in common to them- clares war selves and their neighbours of Friburg were duke. not spared by the marquis of Muss, who was 1 Ru. v. 328-330. against the 2 They had each married a daughter of Portugal. XXII. CHAP. glad to carry on a marauding warfare' against the reformed Swiss under cover of the duke's service. And when they did act, it must be confessed, they acted with vigour. On the 13th of January, 1536, they came to the resolution of declaring war. The next day they despatched a notice of their determination and the reasons of it to the Swiss cantons, to prevent jealousy or misunderstanding on their part. Their declaration of war was issued on the 16th, and the 22d fixed for the march of their troops: and on that very day their army set out from Berne, six or seven thousand strong. On the second of February it arrived at Geneva, having met with nothing to delay it on the road, except receiving the submission of the towns near which it passed. The Savoyards fled before them: and it is needless to say with what joy the Genevese welcomed their deliverers. Their halt at the city was however of short continuance. The next day but one they proceeded in pursuit of the enemy. But the further prosecution of the war was needless against the hapless duke, who now paid the full penalty of his tyranny and cruelty. Vallaisans, having suffered much from his injustice, seized the opportunity of avenging themselves, and recovering the places which he had wrested from them: and, worse than all, the king of France, who, besides other grounds of quarrel, found the possession of Savoy necessary to the execution of his purposes against Milan, (the subject of such protracted contest between him and the emperor,) commenced His ruin. The 1 Above, p. 103-4. He had employed incendiaries in different parts of Switzerland, who caused a conflagration at Berne, among other places, which consumed a whole street. Ru. iv. 334, 336, v. 229, 408-410. A. D. 1536. hostilities and rushed into his territories. Thus the unhappy duke was driven from his dominions, no more to return to them.-He retired to Vercelli, where seventeen years afterwards (1553.) he ended his days. established. The Bernese on their return again visited Liberties of Geneva, and shewed some disposition to claim Geneva the same rights and authority there as had Feb. legally and properly pertained to the duke and the bishop-the latter considered in his civil capacity but the Genevese reminded them what the citizens had suffered for ten years past to escape being under the yoke of a master, by submitting to which they might have been spared all these troubles: and acknowledged how generously Berne had succoured them in their long-continued struggles; and that, by the favour of God and the assistance of that state, their enemies had now melted away like snow. They entreated them therefore not to tarnish the lustre of their noble and liberal services, by a demand which tended to defeat the great object for which the arduous contest had been carried on, but to crown their own glory by placing their ally in the unfettered enjoyment of liberty and independence. The demand was in consequence not pressed: the army finally quitted Geneva, February 18; (less than a month from the time when it had set out from Berne ;) and soon after every point in August. question between the two states was amicably settled. Thus did Geneva achieve the independence which it has so long retained.-The government caused a monument to be erected and inscriptions to be set up commemorative of the happy event.1 1 Ruchat details the particulars of the events here rapidly surveyed, vol. v. 365-470, 499-506. CHAPTER XXIII. A. D. 1536. Swiss PROCEEDINGS IN THE CANTONS, AND at geneva, I SHOULD now gladly present the reader with the account of any interesting occurrences of this period, in other parts of Switzerland: but neither at Zuric, nor Basle, nor Berne, and still less in the minor states, do I find much that deserves to be recorded.2 Each of these places has, in succession, been the scene of important transactions. While the grand struggle was carried on between Christian light and liberty on the one part, and papal darkness and tyranny on the other, and while the great heroes of the reformation led on the contest, our eye was naturally fixed upon the field: but, when the victory was achieved, then things gradually settled down to the level of more ordinary, though highly useful pastoral labour; which, though it trains souls for heaven, furnishes in general little matter for the pen of history. For the present Geneva has become the point of especial attraction, though the reformation of Lausanne, and the other newly acquired territories of Berne, will afford us Simlerus de vitâ Bullingeri. 2 Ruchat, v. 334-354, 358-361; Scultetus, &c. |